Truly talented soul singers can move you with the simplest performances imaginable. I can’t think of a better illustration of this principle than this three-chord hit from deep soul queen Doris Duke.
Halting and soaring her way through a stripped down blues arrangement, Doris cuts into every beat with a voice born for passion and doomed to sorrow. The bluntness of these lyrics would fall flat in the hands of a regular pop singer, but in her clenched-fist delivery they plumb dimensions tension and emotion that simply can’t written or produced.
